Toddler BFIAR Co-op Class: The Runaway Bunny

Summary: A little bunny imagines he’s runaway to become a variety of different things, his mother always uses her imagination to find him.

Story Treasure: Magnetic Foam Fishing Set*

Centers:

ART: Drama
We acted out the story with the students pretending to be the bunny and me as the mother. I would call out one of the bunny’s ideas, like “fish” and they would all swim away as I tried to catch them. It was a great review of the book, as well as getting the wiggles out.

MEMORY: Matching
I printed off and laminated pictures of all the things that the bunny and his mother pretended to be: fish/fisherman, rock/mountain climber, crocus/gardener, bird/tree, boat/wind, trapeze artist/tightrope walker, and boy/mother. First, we matched each pair, then we divided the cards into 2 piles: one for the bunny and one for the mother.

MATH: Shapes
We did the “Shapes” activity on Pg 42 of Before Five in a Row. I was surprised at how easy it was to find appropriate items at home.

FINE MOTOR SKILLS
I passed out the foam fishing sets. Each child had their own pond, 6 fish (a large and small each of 3 different colors), and fishing pole. We discussed colors and size as they fished.

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS: Balance
I stuck painters tape to the carpet so they could practice being tightrope walkers. This was a favorite activity!

*The water and fish were all cut from craft foam, I slid a paperclip onto each fish so they would stick to the magnet. The fishing pole is made from a dowel, cut down to 12″. I drilled a hole in a 1″ candle cup, fed the string through and tied it in a knot, then glued a magnet over the hole. The other end of the string was tied to the dowel.